The invention relates to an improved knitting needle and to a method for producing an inventive circular knitting needle.
Knitting needles have been known for a long time and are available in a large variety. Thus, DE 448 230 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,874,181 B1 each describe knitting needles which are designed to be noncircular in the region of the shank or of the gripping region and to have lobes and troughs to achieve an ergonomic design for the fingers even for longer knitting. However, the knitting process as such is not facilitated or influenced thereby.
DE 1 609 910 and DE 825 299 each describe a knitting needle which is intended to facilitate the knitting for a user, even if this person is somewhat clumsy. For this purpose, the needle tip has a deformation which completely or partially prevents thread return, for example, a narrowed portion, a one-sided thickening or also a two-sided to all-sided thickening. However, the disadvantage of this design of the needle tip is that the knitting yarn can become caught in the narrowed portion or behind the thickenings, so that further knitting using this specially shaped needle tip is difficult. In addition, in most needles, only one side is provided with a corresponding tip, while the other side has a normal knitting needle tip. Knitting with two needle tips which are correspondingly deformed is also difficult. Moreover, in the region of the needle tips, the knitting needles are designed to be very sharp, which can lead to injuries. In addition, there is the risk of sticking the needle into the yarn during knitting—particularly when using thicker yarn. If the user notices this, he or she has to pull the needle tip back again, which slows the knitting process. If the user does not notice this, this leads to an irregular stitch pattern, which should also be avoided.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,431 also describes a knitting needle, here a circular knitting needle, with deformations on the heads. The heads here are in the shape of a truncated cone with curved sides, wherein the radius of the truncated cone in the direction of the tip is greater than the radius of the truncated cone in the direction of the needle. This head should form a resistance for the stitches taken up on the needle, in order to enable firm knitting and prevent loose stitches. However, the disadvantage here is that the needle tips are designed to be very pointed, which can lead to injuries. Moreover, as already mentioned above, this can lead to sticking the needle through the yarn. An ergonomic and low-fatigue knitting is also not possible with these needles, and, in addition, the knitting person cannot produce loosely knitted knitwear, since the deformations on the needle tips represent a resistance and prevent this.